diff --git a/RELEASE_NOTES.md b/RELEASE_NOTES.md
index 51bf065..5faf9de 100644
--- a/RELEASE_NOTES.md
+++ b/RELEASE_NOTES.md
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
-#### 0.5.2 November 11 2019 ###
-* Upgraded all dependencies.
\ No newline at end of file
+#### 0.5.3 January 29 2020 ###
+* Upgraded to latest Akka.NET, Kafka drivers.
+* [OpenTracing: Using AsyncLocalScopeManager as a default tracer's ScopeManager](https://github.com/petabridge/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/pull/131)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/build-system/windows-release.yaml b/build-system/windows-release.yaml
index 7c76df6..d774f6a 100644
--- a/build-system/windows-release.yaml
+++ b/build-system/windows-release.yaml
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ trigger:
   branches:
     include:
       - refs/tags/*
+      
 pr: none
 
 variables:
@@ -26,7 +27,7 @@ steps:
   displayName: 'FAKE Build'
   inputs:
     filename: build.cmd
-    arguments: 'All SignClientUser=$(signingUsername) SignClientSecret=$(signingPassword) nugetpublishurl=https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json nugetkey=$(nugetKey)'
+    arguments: 'nuget SignClientUser=$(signingUsername) SignClientSecret=$(signingPassword) nugetpublishurl=https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json nugetkey=$(nugetKey)'
 
 - task: GitHubRelease@0
   displayName: 'GitHub release (create)'
diff --git a/build.fsx b/build.fsx
index 9a79ea1..ecab0ae 100644
--- a/build.fsx
+++ b/build.fsx
@@ -23,15 +23,22 @@ let solutionFile = FindFirstMatchingFile "*.sln" __SOURCE_DIRECTORY__  // dynami
 let buildNumber = environVarOrDefault "BUILD_NUMBER" "0"
 let hasTeamCity = (not (buildNumber = "0")) // check if we have the TeamCity environment variable for build # set
 let preReleaseVersionSuffix = "beta" + (if (not (buildNumber = "0")) then (buildNumber) else DateTime.UtcNow.Ticks.ToString())
-let versionSuffix = 
-    match (getBuildParam "nugetprerelease") with
-    | "dev" -> preReleaseVersionSuffix
-    | _ -> ""
 
 let releaseNotes =
-    File.ReadLines "./RELEASE_NOTES.md"
+    File.ReadLines (__SOURCE_DIRECTORY__ @@ "RELEASE_NOTES.md")
     |> ReleaseNotesHelper.parseReleaseNotes
 
+let versionFromReleaseNotes =
+    match releaseNotes.SemVer.PreRelease with
+    | Some r -> r.Origin
+    | None -> ""
+
+let versionSuffix = 
+    match (getBuildParam "nugetprerelease") with
+    | "dev" -> preReleaseVersionSuffix
+    | "" -> versionFromReleaseNotes
+    | str -> str
+
 // Directories
 let toolsDir = __SOURCE_DIRECTORY__ @@ "tools"
 let output = __SOURCE_DIRECTORY__  @@ "bin"
diff --git a/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Integration.Tests/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Integration.Tests.csproj b/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Integration.Tests/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Integration.Tests.csproj
index 9791ce3..dcad978 100644
--- a/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Integration.Tests/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Integration.Tests.csproj
+++ b/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Integration.Tests/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Integration.Tests.csproj
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
   <ItemGroup>
     <PackageReference Include="Akka.TestKit.Xunit2" Version="$(AkkaVersion)" />
     <PackageReference Include="Docker.DotNet" Version="3.125.2" />
-    <PackageReference Include="FluentAssertions" Version="5.9.0" />
+    <PackageReference Include="FluentAssertions" Version="5.10.0" />
     <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.NET.Test.Sdk" Version="$(TestSdkVersion)" />
     <PackageReference Include="xunit" Version="$(XunitVersion)" />
     <PackageReference Include="xunit.runner.visualstudio" Version="$(XunitVersion)" />
diff --git a/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Tests/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Tests.csproj b/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Tests/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Tests.csproj
index cb85f7a..6509fff 100644
--- a/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Tests/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Tests.csproj
+++ b/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Tests/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Tests.csproj
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 
   <ItemGroup>
     <PackageReference Include="Akka.TestKit.Xunit2" Version="$(AkkaVersion)" />
-    <PackageReference Include="FluentAssertions" Version="5.9.0" />
+    <PackageReference Include="FluentAssertions" Version="5.10.0" />
     <PackageReference Include="FsCheck.Xunit" Version="2.14.0" />
     <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.NET.Test.Sdk" Version="$(TestSdkVersion)" />
     <PackageReference Include="xunit" Version="$(XunitVersion)" />
diff --git a/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Tests/TracerSpec.cs b/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Tests/TracerSpec.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2acd4ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Tests/TracerSpec.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+using FluentAssertions;
+using Xunit;
+
+namespace Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Tests
+{
+    public class TracerSpec
+    {
+        [Fact]
+        public void Should_have_active_span_when_scope_is_used()
+        {
+            var url = "http://localhost:9411";
+            using (var tracer = new ZipkinTracer(new ZipkinTracerOptions(url, "ZipkinTest", debug: true)))
+            {
+                using (var scope = tracer.BuildSpan("ShouldSendSpans").StartActive(finishSpanOnDispose: true))
+                {
+                    tracer.ActiveSpan.Should().NotBeNull();
+                }
+
+                tracer.ActiveSpan.Should().BeNull();
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.csproj b/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.csproj
index abdfeb8..d6b7215 100644
--- a/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.csproj
+++ b/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.csproj
@@ -14,11 +14,11 @@
 
   <ItemGroup>
     <PackageReference Include="Akka" Version="$(AkkaVersion)" />
-    <PackageReference Include="Confluent.Kafka" Version="0.11.6" />
-    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.IO.RecyclableMemoryStream" Version="1.3.0" />
+    <PackageReference Include="Confluent.Kafka" Version="1.3.0" />
+    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.IO.RecyclableMemoryStream" Version="1.3.2" />
     <PackageReference Include="Newtonsoft.Json" Version="12.0.3" />
     <PackageReference Include="OpenTracing" Version="0.12.1" />
-    <PackageReference Include="Phobos.Actor.Common" Version="1.0.0" />
+    <PackageReference Include="Phobos.Actor.Common" Version="1.1.1" />
   </ItemGroup>
 
 </Project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/Reporting/Kafka/KafkaReportingActor.cs b/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/Reporting/Kafka/KafkaReportingActor.cs
index ccd81ec..bbd0229 100644
--- a/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/Reporting/Kafka/KafkaReportingActor.cs
+++ b/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/Reporting/Kafka/KafkaReportingActor.cs
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@
 using Akka.Actor;
 using Akka.Event;
 using Confluent.Kafka;
-using Confluent.Kafka.Serialization;
 using Phobos.Actor.Common;
 
 namespace Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Reporting.Kafka
@@ -58,16 +57,19 @@ private void Batching()
                     RescheduleBatchTransmission();
             });
 
-            Receive<Message<Null, byte[]>>(msg =>
+            Receive<DeliveryResult<Null, byte[]>>(result =>
             {
-                if (msg.Error.HasError && _log.IsErrorEnabled)
+                if (_log.IsDebugEnabled)
+                    _log.Debug("Successfully posted spans [{0} bytes] to Kafka for topic [{1}]", result.Message.Value.Length, result.Topic);
+            });
+            
+            Receive<ProduceException<Null, byte[]>>(ex =>
+            {
+                if (_log.IsErrorEnabled)
                     _log.Error(
                         "Error [{0}][{1}] occurred while uploading spans [{3} bytes] to Kafka endpoints [{2}] for topic [{4}]",
-                        msg.Error.Code, msg.Error.Reason,
-                        string.Join(",", _options.BootstrapServers), msg.Value.Length, msg.Topic);
-                else if (_log.IsDebugEnabled)
-                    _log.Debug("Successfully posted spans [{0} bytes] to Kafka for topic [{1}]", msg.Value.Length,
-                        msg.Topic);
+                        ex.Error.Code, ex.Error.Reason,
+                        string.Join(",", _options.BootstrapServers), ex.DeliveryResult.Message.Value.Length, ex.DeliveryResult.Topic);
             });
 
             // Indicates that one of our HTTP requests timed out
@@ -81,7 +83,8 @@ private void Batching()
 
         private void ExecuteDelivery()
         {
-            _kafkaProducer.TransmitSpans(PendingMessages).PipeTo(Self);
+            _kafkaProducer.TransmitSpans(PendingMessages)
+                .PipeTo(Self, failure: ex => ex as ProduceException<Null, byte[]>);
 
             PendingMessages.Clear();
             RescheduleBatchTransmission();
@@ -98,9 +101,10 @@ private void RescheduleBatchTransmission()
         protected override void PreStart()
         {
             RescheduleBatchTransmission();
-            _kafkaProducer = new KafkaTransmitter(_options.TopicName,
-                new Producer<Null, byte[]>(_options.ToDriverConfig(),
-                    new NullSerializer(), new ByteArraySerializer()), _options.Serializer);
+            var producerBuilder = new ProducerBuilder<Null, byte[]>(_options.ToDriverConfig())
+                .SetKeySerializer(Serializers.Null)
+                .SetValueSerializer(Serializers.ByteArray);
+            _kafkaProducer = new KafkaTransmitter(_options.TopicName, producerBuilder.Build(), _options.Serializer);
 
             if (_options.DebugLogging)
                 _log.Debug("Connected to Kafka at [{0}] on topic [{1}] for Zipkin",
diff --git a/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/Reporting/Kafka/KafkaTransmitter.cs b/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/Reporting/Kafka/KafkaTransmitter.cs
index cf0fea4..f0d2b24 100644
--- a/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/Reporting/Kafka/KafkaTransmitter.cs
+++ b/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/Reporting/Kafka/KafkaTransmitter.cs
@@ -16,11 +16,11 @@ namespace Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Reporting.Kafka
     /// </summary>
     public sealed class KafkaTransmitter : IDisposable
     {
-        private readonly Producer<Null, byte[]> _producer;
+        private readonly IProducer<Null, byte[]> _producer;
         private readonly ISpanSerializer _serializer;
         private readonly string _topicName;
 
-        public KafkaTransmitter(string topicName, Producer<Null, byte[]> producer, ISpanSerializer serializer)
+        public KafkaTransmitter(string topicName, IProducer<Null, byte[]> producer, ISpanSerializer serializer)
         {
             _producer = producer;
             _serializer = serializer;
@@ -32,14 +32,13 @@ public void Dispose()
             _producer?.Dispose();
         }
 
-        public async Task<Message<Null, byte[]>> TransmitSpans(IEnumerable<Span> spans)
+        public async Task<DeliveryResult<Null, byte[]>> TransmitSpans(IEnumerable<Span> spans)
         {
-            using (var stream =
-                SerializationStreamManager.StreamManager.GetStream("Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.KafkaTransmitter"))
+            using (var stream = SerializationStreamManager.StreamManager.GetStream("Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.KafkaTransmitter"))
             {
                 _serializer.Serialize(stream, spans);
                 var outboundBytes = stream.ToArray();
-                return await _producer.ProduceAsync(_topicName, null, outboundBytes).ConfigureAwait(false);
+                return await _producer.ProduceAsync(_topicName, new Message<Null, byte[]>() { Key = null, Value = outboundBytes }).ConfigureAwait(false);
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/Reporting/Kafka/ZipkinKafkaReportingOptions.cs b/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/Reporting/Kafka/ZipkinKafkaReportingOptions.cs
index 7d3195a..7412f24 100644
--- a/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/Reporting/Kafka/ZipkinKafkaReportingOptions.cs
+++ b/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/Reporting/Kafka/ZipkinKafkaReportingOptions.cs
@@ -87,9 +87,9 @@ public ZipkinKafkaReportingOptions(IReadOnlyList<string> bootstrapServers,
         ///     Creates a configuration object in the style expected by the Confluent.Kafka driver.
         /// </summary>
         /// <returns>A new dictionary instance each time.</returns>
-        public IReadOnlyDictionary<string, object> ToDriverConfig()
+        public IReadOnlyDictionary<string, string> ToDriverConfig()
         {
-            return new Dictionary<string, object>
+            return new Dictionary<string, string>
             {
                 {"bootstrap.servers", string.Join(",", BootstrapServers)},
                 {"request.required.acks", "0"} // don't wait for broker to send ACKs back (it's just trace data)
diff --git a/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/ZipkinTracer.cs b/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/ZipkinTracer.cs
index 513172b..814a0c8 100644
--- a/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/ZipkinTracer.cs
+++ b/src/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/ZipkinTracer.cs
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 using System;
 using OpenTracing;
 using OpenTracing.Propagation;
+using OpenTracing.Util;
 using Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Exceptions;
 using Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Propagation;
 using Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin.Sampling;
@@ -29,7 +30,7 @@ public ZipkinTracer(ZipkinTracerOptions options)
             _reporter = options.Reporter;
             LocalEndpoint = options.LocalEndpoint;
             TimeProvider = options.TimeProvider ?? new DateTimeOffsetTimeProvider();
-            ScopeManager = options.ScopeManager ?? NoOp.ScopeManager;
+            ScopeManager = options.ScopeManager ?? new AsyncLocalScopeManager();
             IdProvider = options.IdProvider ?? ThreadLocalRngSpanIdProvider.TraceId128BitProvider;
             Sampler = options.Sampler ?? NoSampler.Instance;
             Options = options;
diff --git a/src/common.props b/src/common.props
index befdc1c..710063e 100644
--- a/src/common.props
+++ b/src/common.props
@@ -2,8 +2,9 @@
   <PropertyGroup>
     <Copyright>Copyright © 2015-2018 Petabridge</Copyright>
     <Authors>Petabridge</Authors>
-    <VersionPrefix>0.5.2</VersionPrefix>
-    <PackageReleaseNotes>Upgraded all dependencies.</PackageReleaseNotes>
+    <VersionPrefix>0.5.3</VersionPrefix>
+    <PackageReleaseNotes>Upgraded to latest Akka.NET, Kafka drivers.
+[OpenTracing: Using AsyncLocalScopeManager as a default tracer's ScopeManager](https://github.com/petabridge/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin/pull/131)</PackageReleaseNotes>
     <PackageIconUrl>https://petabridge.com/images/logo.png</PackageIconUrl>
     <PackageProjectUrl>
       https://github.com/petabridge/Petabridge.Tracing.Zipkin
@@ -15,7 +16,7 @@
     <NoWarn>$(NoWarn);CS1591</NoWarn>
   </PropertyGroup>
   <PropertyGroup>
-    <AkkaVersion>1.3.16</AkkaVersion>
+    <AkkaVersion>1.3.17</AkkaVersion>
     <XunitVersion>2.4.1</XunitVersion>
     <NBenchVersion>1.2.2</NBenchVersion>
     <TestSdkVersion>16.4.0</TestSdkVersion>